Count them. Every field, every click, every email confirmation between "sign up" and the first moment the product does something useful.
Reply with:
- Your product
- The number of steps today
- The moment of value: what the user sees or gets
- Where people drop out, if you measure it
- One step you removed and what happened
Ways founders commonly shorten the path:
- Ask for the email only. Collect the rest later.
- Let people try the product before they create an account.
- Fill the first screen with sample data so it is not empty.
- Move email verification to after the first success.
- Remove the product tour and make the first screen obvious.
- Ask one question that sets things up, in place of a settings page.
A blank screen after signup is the usual culprit. A new user who lands on an empty dashboard has to imagine the value, and most will not bother.